in public

Saturday, the 7th of January, was the day. I had been invited to join a “Magic Dinner” in Dortmund, Germany.

The environment
The dinner was held in a wonderful ambiance. A nice building in an area that is not very crowded, owned by friendly people who try to make the atmosphere inside as gentle and welcoming as possible. And they succeeded in that. The dinner was held in a beautiful restaurant where about 25 people were seated.

The participants
During the evening, music was played by a very nice group of young musicians who go by the name of Cathain. They played folk music from Ireland, Hungary and many other countries.

There were two other authors present that evening. One was my friend Christian Turk, who is a cartoonist and author of a wonderful book called Faun. It was from that book that he read a story. The second author was Eire Rautenberg, who read a number of very interesting poems from one of her latest publications. And then there was yours truly, who read chapter 13 and 14 from Snow White Revisited. I had reworked those chapters into German for the evening.

The experienceIt was amazing to be there. The authors were seated together for dinner. The dinner was mixed with reading, which made a great combination. Everyone present was listening attentively and appreciating what was read and said.

I must admit that I was not feeling entirely and totally relaxed when it was my turn to sit in front of about 25 people to read my own story. In German. But after the first bout of laughter I knew that it was going the right way, and that was an encouraging moment.

I had brought some paper copies of Hilda the Wicked Witch along, and I was pleased that quite some people wanted to own a copy. One of the musicians afterwards asked if he could also have the text I had used to read the two chapters from.

Many people made pictures, and I was promised that they would send them to me, so when I receive them, I shall put up a selection of them on this website. And receiving a thank-you gift for coming over and reading blew me away.

The foodAlas, I do have to pester you with that a little as well. It was vegetarian and exquisite. The lady who had prepared the food, Allesia, is dedicated to using herbs, local vegetables and mushrooms, and even flowers. She develops her own recipes with these ingredients. It had taken her two full days of preparation, but the result was astounding. Everyone agreed with that.

Yes, dear reader, this evening I am going to Dortmund in Germany, where I have been invited, together with other people in the artistic craft, to be present at a ‘magical dinner’. There will be other people, like musicians and poets, and everyone will show, recite or perform some of their art.

I was asked to read one or two chapters from one of the Hilda books, and of course I was flattered to be invited. As I have mentioned before on this blog, I selected two chapters that are rather easy to step into (they are from Snow White Revisited) and reworked those into German, because not I cannot expect everyone to be proficient in English.

It will be an interesting evening, I am convinced of that. If anything noteworthy passes, I shall of course share this with you.

Oh my. I have been invited for a “Magic Dinner” in Germany later this year. In my (uhm) authority as an author. And I was asked to read a few chapters of Hilda to the other guests.

Which chapters should I use?! They have to be ones that are easily understood by people who (the shame) don’t know my witch. And preferably ones that can be translated into German and still be funny. (but that will be my least problem, I am well enough versed in the German language for that, I think.)